Eli has worked, as a forklift operator, at Cola Distributors for 6 months. During this time, he has witnessed the way in which his supervisor, Don, treats his coworkers and himself. Don regularly yells at employees, gives them unflattering nicknames, and mocks them. Eli has noticed that it doesn't really matter whether an employee is white, black, old, young, Muslim, Jewish, Christian (or anything else) - as soon as an employee disagrees with Don - Don goes after them.

Tony, an African-American employee was fired last month by Don. Tony filed an internal complaint with Cola's Human Resources department alleging race discrimination. Human Resources interviewed all five warehouse employees about whether Don discriminated against Tony because of his race. HR also asked each employee about Don's style as a manager.

The warehouse employees were worried about suffering the wrath of Don so four of the five employees told HR nothing about Don's behavior. They were all in and out of their individual interviews in less than 20 minutes. However, Eli provided HR with detailed examples of Don's behavior - his interview with HR lasted nearly two hours.

The final results of the investigation were that Don did not discriminate against Tony because of his race but that Don generally treated employees poorly regardless of any protected characteristic (including race). To help Don improve his "people skills", Cola Distributors required him to take an online course.

Don knew that Eli was the one who had ratted him out to HR and he was determined to get even. However, Don firmly believed that revenge was a dish best served cold. About four months later, Don changed Eli's work schedule exclusively to the night shift (everyone else rotated days and nights). Don also prevented Eli from sharing in the overtime hours that other employees enjoyed - Don cited the fact that Eli was the employee with the least seniority and had to earn the right to overtime work. Lastly, Eli applied for a promotion to "Lead Forklift Driver" and despite meeting all job requirements, Don passed Eli over for an external applicant who had no experience driving a forklift.

Not receiving the promotion to Lead Forklift Driver was the final straw and Eli complained to HR. Eli told HR that he knew Don treating him badly because of what Eli had told HR. The HR manager immediately told Eli that he didn't have a valid claim because Cola found that Don did not discriminate against Tony because of his race. They had found that Don was just a jerk and being a jerk wasn't against the law. The HR manager's advice to Eli was to tough it out and, in time, Don would settle down and act more managerial.

Question:

Put yourself in the shoes of the HR manager. What would you have said and done when Eli came to speak to you? Does Eli have a valid claim of retaliation? Why or why not?

Please post your response and then comment or respond to at least one post by a classmate.